Prologue to Stranger Things Have Happened
by lembasbreadmadebysoufflegirl
Summary: This is a prologue to Stranger Things Have Happened - if you haven't read that story, though, go read it, because SPOILERS. It's not that kind of prologue. This is Tralique's story, right up till she goes poof. I suck at summaries, but if you read Stranger Things, you should probably read this.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

Years and years ago in Middle Earth, there was a little girl who was born to Inla, a human woman, and Likoyin. Her name was Tralique.

Yeah, that's me. I'm Tralique. Duh.

I'll start at the beginning, I guess. The _real_ beginning, this time.

* * *

I skipped down the road, swinging a new dagger that my dad had given me, back and forth, back and forth. It felt good to be left alone by the others, who made fun of me, all the time, for having a human mother, Inla.

I was around twenty-five, thirty years old - only a fairly young kid. About twelve, human years, perhaps.

Just then, two young boys rounded a corner, ahead on the street. I ducked into an alley, my heart in my throat. I knew who they were.

They were a few years older than me, maybe closer to thirty-five-ish for the younger, dark-haired one and forty for the older, light-haired one, but both only few years older than me in human years.

The darker one spoke, "Fili, you said Uncle would meet us. _Here_."

Fili grunted. "Perhaps, Kili. He said he might meet us here. He also said to go home if he does not come in about ten minutes."

Kili grumbled to himself, kicking a rock down the road - where it rolled, to my horror, into my alley.

The boy came running down and came into _my alley_, looking for the rock, staring at the ground. I was too busy staring at _him_ to realize what was going on, and he ran straight into me.

I fell backwards, throwing out my hand to break my fall, then hearing a nasty crack reverbrating throughout the alley, accompanied by a burning pain in my wrist.

I choked from where I was lying, desperately gasping air into my lungs from where the wind had been knocked out of me. My back throbbed a little, informing me irritably that _that hurt_, thank you very much.

Kili swore (surprisingly colorfully for such a young boy) and I saw that he had managed to stay on his feet. He reached down, oddly gentle, and helped me to my feet, carefully avoiding my wrist. I leaned against the alley wall, gratefully sucking air down and trying not to choke pitifully.

"Are you okay?" he asked, picking up the rock.

"No," I replied, in a slightly hoarse voice. "I'm not doing too great on the whole breathing thing and you broke my wrist."

He winced in sympathy. "Look, I'm sorry," he murmured shamefully. He picked up the dagger from where it had fallen and passed it to me. "You sort of - threw this," he told me.

I frowned. "Threw it? Where?"

"At me," came the calm reply.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't -"

"It's okay. I ducked." But he was lying, I saw, because there was a bloody rip in his shirt, near his shoulder, and there was a small trickle of blood coming from it.

I slid the dagger back into my belt and ripped a length of cloth from my tarnished, dirty, and too small shirt. I stepped forward and gently pulled away Kili's shirt from the cut, holding the cloth in my mouth. Kili made a small noise, but I ignored him, and carefully, onehanded, wound the cloth around the unfortunately deep wound and tied it off with help from my teeth.

I stepped back, cradling my injured wrist, and removed my cloak. Then I shook my head and mmyself and put my hand on the wrist, pushing on it. It was a clean break, but it was slightly out of place - I howled silently as I set into place, then gritted my teeth, remembering that there was someone watching me.

It immediately felt better. I carefully made part of the cloak into a bandage and wound it around my wrist gingerly, splinting it with a couple of sticks that I carried around just in case. I sighed with relief, and then set to work on making a sling with the rest of my cloak. Halfway through, Kili's hands appeared in my vision, and I gasped, startled, looking up at him.

"I just wanted to help," he said softly, staring at me with his brown eyes full of sympathy.

I grunted, and we finished the sling. I pulled it around my neck and slid my arm into it.

"Are you right-handed?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said ruefully, looking at the now useless right hand.

Suddenly, Fili yelled, "Kili, where are you?" I jumped, and Kili looked apologetic.

"Sorry, I've got to go - wait!" he added suddenly as I turned away. I stopped and turned my head back, looking over my shoulder. "What's your name?"

"Tralique," I replied, turning back. "And you're Kili."

With that, I walked away.

**HEY! This is a prologue to Stranger Things and will go on until "Tralique" goes poof into Earth - spoiler alert, for those of you who haven't finished Stranger Things Have Happened. Heh. So, please read, review, and I really hope once I'm done with this that my brain will let me alone about this damn story.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

I stepped into the house and called, "Dad?"

He came and he registered my wrist in less than a moment. "Oh, Tralique, what did you do?" he asked in a murmur, herding me into the kitchen.

"I - fell," I replied lamely.

"You fell," he repeated, sounding highly disbelieving.

"Sort of. Kili ran into me and I fell backwards and broke my wrist."

"Kili?" asked Likoyin, sounding suddenly on high-alert.

I sighed. "He's Thorin's nephew. He's got an older brother named Fili, you know - they're princes and whatever." I tried to sound disinterested and annoyed.

My dad looked down at me. "You're too young for boys," he told me as he fixed up my arm, splinting it properly and finding a real sling.

I shrugged, causing him to hiss with annoyance as my wrist moved. "I dunno, Dad. I'm thirty now, and -"

I registered the look of annoyance and anger and a _you-better-shut-up-now_ look, and quickly amended, "It's not like I want to be with him annyway."

My mother came in, sparing my dad's reply. "What did she do this time?" she asked with a sigh. My mother was tall, by dwarf standards, although still not as tall as my dad. Despite this, she told me as often as possible that she was considered very, very short by the race of Man - which was what she was. She had the same color hair as me, a dark brown streaked with lighter brown, and dark brown eyes.

I glanced up at my dad's eyes, the same deep blue flecked with grey as mine were. "I broke my wrist," I told my mom.

"How?" she asked, holding up the ruined cloak and clucking her tongue at it.

"A boy ran into me."

"Who?"

"Kili. Thorin's nephew," I replied.

"Hmm. I'm assuming he didn't do it on purpose," she said, looking at me in a penetrating way, as if I would cover up for Kili.

"No. It was an accident," I reassured her, remembering Kili's apologetic gaze and the way he had tried to pretend my dagger hadn't hit him.

She pursed her lips. "If you say so. I shall be investiagting," she said, shaking her finger at me.

I shrugged. "You have fun. I promise, he didn't mean to."

* * *

"You didn't mean to, did you?" I asked worriedly, sitting on the bridge, swinging my legs over the side.

Kili, sitting next to me, shook his head violently. "No, God, no. I didn't see you. Why?"

"Mum's asking," I replied with a shrug.

Kili looked at my arm apologetically. "I really am sorry, you know -"

I held up my good hand. "I'll be fine. I heal fast."

"If you say so," he muttered.

I watched the sun go down over the river, lighting the sky on fire as the flaming disk hit the horizon line, sending long lines of pink and gold flying across the sky from the west, struggling to light the eastern sky that was tinted dark blue. The clouds, the few little puffy ones that there were, were orangey on their west sides.

I sighed as the reflection of the moon rose in the river, and the water itself turned gold as the sun's light hit it, sending bright light into my eyes, causing me to squint and my pupils to shrink.

When the last light was from the moon and the final lines of gold arching across the now indigo sky, I frowned and stood up. "I've got to go. Mum'll worry."

Kili looked disappointed, but he quickly masked it and stood up with me. "I'll see you tomorrow, Tralique?" he said quietly.

I nodded. "Yeah, promise."

I turned to go, but he caught at my sleeve. "Wait," he implored. He grabbed my hand and held it open in his. "Close your eyes."

I obliged, wondering what this could possibly be about.

I felt as he placed something small, rough, and cold in the hollow of my palm and closed my hand over it. He patted it. "See you tomorrow, Tralique," he whispered.

I nodded, not opening my eyes. I listened to the crunch of his footsteps as he turned and walked towards his home.

After I was sure he was gone, I slowly opened my eyes and uncurled my fingers. Then I stared disbelievingly at my palm.

In it was a small, grey stone with little spots of blue, a common pebble for around here. But that wasn't what was remarkable about it.

It had the word _Tralique_ carved into it.

**Second chapter! Just a warning, I'm doing NaNoWriMo, so these will be INCREDIBLY sporadic, because this is not the story I'm doing. Once November is over, things'll be cool, but NaNoWriMo shall consume my life. 'Till then, hope you like! (In case you didn't get it, it's the rock Kili was kicking when he ran into Tralique.)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

I smiled after Kili as he walked away. He had gotten so tall, and I remained short, always.

We had come to this bridge every day for an hour at sunset for twenty years now. I was fifty now, and Kili was fifty-five, about.

The smile slid off my face and I called after him, "Kili, wait!"

He turned to look back at me as he came to a stop. I jogged to catch up with him. I reached into my pocket and pulled out that rock he had given me so many years ago. He seemed to age as he saw it, a slightly wistful smile lighting his face.

"This is the rock you kicked that got my wrist broken, right?" I asked, holding the rock as if it were a precious thing.

"Yeah. I thought you knew?"

"I just - wanted to confirm," I replied, and then I turned. "See you tomorrow."

"See you," came his reply.

I continued down the road, my boots crunching on the gravel.

I hunched my shoulders as I passed through town and the stares came, the whispers that always seemed to follow me. Sometimes I wondered what it must have been like for my mother wandering through town, except that despite her humanity she was semi-accepted and repected.

I was unlike all of the other female dwarves, and not only because I was half-human. For some reason, these people thought that being half-human was worse than having a human marry a dwarf - as if the child was an abomination, a defilement to their race. Sometimes I thought that everyone hated me but for Kili, his brother, and my parents.

But I was also strange because I never wore dresses. I refused. Why would I wear something so impractical and ridiculous? I always wore breeches, a shirt of some sort, and boots. I heard the whispers as I walked by - talking about my lack of beard (which I personally thought a blessing), and my lack of femininity, which I found far more disturbing. You would think that dwarves, of all people, would be perfectly find and happy with their women fighting.

Apparently not.

Just then, like so many nights before, a young dwarf jumped out of an alley in front of me. I didn't even flinch anymore. He swung his sword with a yell and I responded faster than the eye could see by whipping my sword, a new gift from my father, around and catching his blade before it went an inch.

"You would think that I have beat you enough," I snarled. "Night after night you come for me, you think you can hurt me, what do you think you're going to accomplish? If you kill me, what then?"

He never spoke. He just growled again and freed his blade, swinging it at my throat. I parried it, throwing the blade off to the side and knocking him off-balance, then performing a left crescent-moon stroke, cutting of a lock of his hair. Then the opposite crescent-moon, slicing into his belt and digging a tiny nick into his bicep.

His expression narrowed in hatred and he leaped forward, his blade singing for my blood. It had only gotten a taste of it once, and I still had the scar along my cheekbone, and now it just wanted more.

I caught the sword, weaving a web of steel around the blade and catching its crossguard, sending it flying into the shadows of the alley he had come from. My weapon flicked up to kiss his throat.

We stood panting for a few moments before I growled lowly, "You're lucky, yet again, that I'm a better person than you are, because I could slit your throat and watch you bleed out at my feet. But I won't, even though you'd do the same to me. Leave me alone. You will never best me."

I shoved him away from me and he skittered away and I continued on my walk, the only show that the encounter had happened at all that I was sweaty and the whispers had intensified, just as they always did.

"Just another normal day," I muttered as I took the final turn to my home. "Just another day."

**So, yeah. Cool. More chapters acoming, and I've got some pretty good ideas on how to continue this. YAY!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The next day, I sat on the bridge and watched the sun go down - this time, for the first time in twenty years, alone.

I wiped at my eye angrily, ordering the stupid tear to get back in my eye. Not that it worked. "Where is he?" I muttered, picking up a rock (making sure it wasn't the one Kili had given me) and chucked it into the river.

Finally, after the sun sank past the horizon, I stood up, trying to convince myself that Kili just had to be sick or something. But there was a huge flaw in this - he had been sick before, and still come.

Just as I was walking off the bridge, I saw him, standing on the side of the road. A dwarf girl, who I knew was named Alithyk. I swallowed as she giggled and held on tighter to his arm.

I resisted the urge to storm up to them and shove Alithyk off the bridge. Still, I couldn't fight the rising hatred of her.

And as I walked past, I saw Kili's head come up and he saw me. The blood drained from his face and I was savagely glad to see the self-anger on his face. He said something to Alithyk, who pouted, and then came towards me.

I whipped out my sword as if he were my recurring attacker and placed it to his throat. "Don't come any closer," I ordered, trying for imperious on the other side of the sword, but my voice was sharp with hurt.

Kili stood very still and said, "Can I just talk?"

"Clearly," I replied sarcastically.

"Without the sword?" I was backwardsly pleased by his obvious fear of my fighting skills.

"Fine. You have two minutes. _Talk_."

"She's my girlfriend, Tralique, I can't just come and meet you every night and not expect her to get jealous," he said immediately, as if it would _help_.

"I'm your friend!" I snapped. "Surely someone who gets unhappy when their boyfriend goes off to see their friend is too insecure to be fun."

Kili frowned. "I -"

"So you don't want to see me anymore," I stated, my throat closing. "Okay. Fine. I don't want to see you either." I shoved my sword into its sheath and started to walk away.

"Wait!" he called, but I ignored him.

After a moment when I didn't hear him, I started to cry in earnest. _Way to go, Tralique_, I told myself savagely. _Your only friend, ever, and you managed to get him to drop you for some other girl who's too insecure and petty to fight. Nice job._

I heard crunching footsteps in front of me, and I barely looked up - until a cold blade hit my throat. I froze, tears still flowing down my cheeks, as the awful man who always attacked me and managed to keep his hood up covering his eyes grinned. And, for the first time, he spoke. "Human-dwarf girl," he said, in a deep voice. "Finally, we can rest in peace."

"Who's we?" I croaked, feeling a tiny trickle of blood from where his sword touched my throat.

"My people. We know what you are, even if you don't, and you are an abomination. We will kill you, we vowed, and I have finally caught you. They will be pleased."

He pressed his advantage, and I fell to my knees, knowing that if I moved, he would kill me. I closed my eyes and the pressure disappeared momentarily as he pulled the sword back, about to lop my head off -

and there was a roar above me, and suddenly my vision was filled with Kili, who had apparently jumped the creep. There was a loud bang, and Kili yelled, but then the dust cleared and Kili was holding the man's own sword to his throat, both breathing hard.

I stared. "Kili - you -"

"How many others are there? Of you?" he snarled, directing his words at the man.

The man stared at him. "Just two."

"Where?"

The man pointed into the alley, and immediately I leaped to my feet, drawing my sword. I jumped into the alley and there was a lot of activity that I didn't actually follow. The next thing I knew, though, was that I was standing over two bleeding and dead people.

"Kili? How's the other one?" I called over my shoulder.

"Dead. I killed him."

I ran over and looked at the body. "Yeah, you kind of did. Thank you, by the way. For...saving my life."

"Welcome."

"Will you, I dunno, hang out with me? Even if you're with Alithyk?" I asked, staring at my blood-stained sword.

Kili's fingers pressed under my chin, lifting my face up to look at him. "Count on it."

I smiled shakily. "But -"

"What?" he asked softly.

"Won't she - I dunno - not like it?"

He shrugged, looking like a dark and grimy avenging angel in a long coat. "I don't care. If she doesn't like it, she can shove off. You're my friend. I'm not abandoning you again."

I smiled at him, and then jumped at him, wrapping him in a hug. "Thanks."

He hugged me back. "It's okay. See you tomorrow, Tralique."

"See you," I replied, walking towards home, for once not afraid of my constant attacker, not afraid of death, not noticing anybody else. For the first time, I walked home happily.

**So, we'll go through Alithyk to Piolína, and then to Tralique, and then YAY will be at happy place. See u next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

The next couple of weeks were good - calm, even. With a distinct lack of people trying to kill me, life was good. To make my good, expansive mood even better, Kili's girlfriend, Alithyk moved away. Her family uprooted and left for some other dwarfish settlement, leaving Kili without a relationship.

There was peace for a few more weeks, and then suddenly, a dwarf-girl named Piolína caught Kili's eye. Or rather, Kili caught her eye and he didn't really fall for her - he was forced to submit.

I hated her from the beginning, because she was an airhead. All she did was giggle all the time and cling to Kili like a burr, frustrating me that I couldn't talk to Kili in a real conversation. The only time I had ever thought was sacred was those sunset bridge talks with Kili, but now Piolína hovered on the end of the bridge, watching and eavesdropping as if trying to make sure Kili and I weren't secretly making out while we were talking. And then I noticed that she refused to wear anything but skirts. This was _fairly_ normal, but it still bugged me.

Then I found out that she couldn't even fight.

Almost all dwarf-women are taught to fight, with swords and other weapons, even if they thought it widely unladylike to actually use them all the time. But Piolína didn't even know how to fight - _at all_.

After about a week, I had had it. When she started eavesdropping again, pretending like she was actually interested in the wares of a man who was selling "magical" objects (Piolína didn't care about a single thing but making herself look pretty), I lost it.

"Piolína!" I screamed, startling Kili so bad he jumed and hit his head against a railing.

She started, and turned to look at me, her mouth curving into a fake but sugary smile. "Oh, you're _here_, darling Tralique! How exciting." She dropped the amulet she was holding back onto the cart (to the annoyance of the vendor, judging by the hiss he made) and walked towards us. "What do you need, dearie?" she asked, pursing her lips in a way that she clearly assumed was cute.

I narrowed my eyes hatefully at her. She may have been attractive by conventional standards (she really _was_ a pretty little thing), but she looked ugly in my eyes. "Stop eavesdropping."

"Eavesdropping?" Her eyes widened in false innocence. "I simply stopped to look at that kind man's wares."

"Every night for the past week?" I challenged. "Ever since you and Kili started to court?"

Piolína grew angry at this one, because there was no way she could deny it. "You lying little upstart!" she fumed. "Why, I could have you under my thumb -"

My sword was flying before the words stopped. It rested at the base of her throat, and she froze perfectly in her position. "Mhm," I drawled, "I _so_ bet you could."

Kili finally came to his senses and stood up. "Tralique -"

"Don't let her hurt me, Kili," whined Piolína. "Don't let the violent girl hurt me, I didn't mean any harm."

I rolled my eyes and snarled, "Be silent. You _mewling quim_."

She shut up, but Kili barreled on with his sentence as neither of us had spoken: "-are you sure she's been watching us?"

I nodded, not taking my eyes off of the annoying girl.

Kili looked hurt and drew himself up to his full height. "Yeah, I'm so done with you," he said, and for a second I was afraid he was talking to me. Then I followed his gaze, which was fixed on the girl at the end of my sword.

Piolína looked both hurt and shocked. "You're -"

"Dumping you? Yes," replied Kili. "Clearly if you don't trust me enough to meet an old friend and not cheat on you, then you're not worth the trouble."

He sounded painfully arrogant, and I almost winced for Piolína - then remembered that Kili was doing this for me, and he was not normally like this.

I pulled back my sword, and the girl ran away.

I sat back down on the bridge, laying my sword next to me without sheathing it. "Thanks," I said as Kili sat down next to me.

He looked at me strangely. "For what? It was going to stop pretty soon anyway. You just escalated it. I should be thanking _you_."

I laughed. "Still, I wasn't positive if you were going to back me up. Her voice on your males is like a magic charm."

He shrugged. "I'll always back you up, Tralique."

We didn't speak anymore as the sun went down over the river, lighting the water's surface on fire as the night drew in.

**Sorry it took me so long to update! My brain wasn't working, I was deciding whether or not to drop NaNoWriMo this year (I ended up dropping it because a, I got to far behind and b, I'm too busy), but I ended up posting anyway! If there are any Loki-fan-people out there, I have put up a new story, a Loki/OC and it's gonna be fun. So, yeah, that's all the news for now. Please review!**


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